Thursday, October 22, 2015

A Parent’s Response to the New York Times Article: Eliminate Vaccine Exemptions

I am generally a nice person. As long as someone or something does not infringe upon my rights as a parent or individual I try to stay out of it. And that’s exactly how I feel about vaccinations. I encourage you to educate yourself but ultimately, you have the final say. That’s how it is here in the United States of America, we have the freedom to choose, freedom to parent our kids the way we see fit, and freedom from government interference into the most intimate aspects of our lives whether we are religious or not.

Or so I thought…
There was a piece published by the New York Times recently written by Dr. Kristen Feemster (a pediatric infectious disease physician who profits from “professionally advising” pharmaceutical companies and feels that a parent’s decision not to vaccinate may warrant a call to Child Protective Services) that urged the scientific and public health communities to curtail vaccine exemptions. In case you’re wondering, a vaccine exemption allows an individual to forgo the vaccination for medical, religious, and sometimes philosophical reasons. The reason for trumping these rights? The public good.

I had many problems with this article, and you should too, because it infringes on your constitutional rights as a parent, blatantly suggests that “vaccines are safe and effective,” insinuates that those of us who choose not to vaccinate our children have no educated reason for doing so, and obviously assumes that the healthcare, scientific community, and parents (the most important player in this dilemma if you will) agree on what constitutes the public good.

Here is my response to this article.

Dear Dr. Feemster, the New York Times, and anyone else who thinks I don’t have a right to (un)vaccinate my child:

I am sorry to hear that you deem a parent’s choice of whether or not to vaccinate with so little regard. Need I refer you to the United States Constitution where it has been decided and upheld by the United States Supreme Court on numerous occassions that parents’ have the right to the care, custody, and control of their children, freedom to rear their children without government interference, the freedom of expression and religion, freedom of privacy, and protection under the first, ninth, and 14th amendments. The right to raise my child as I see fit and the right to decide what I do and do not put into my body or my child’s is a fundamental right granted to me as a citizen of the United States of America. (See Prince v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Wisconsin v. Yoder, Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, Meyer v. Nebraska, City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health Inc., Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Stanley v Illinois, Quilloin v. Walcott, Parham v. J. R, etc.)

You claim that personal and philosophical exemptions should be curtailed because of those who cannot medically receive vaccines. What about those of us who are subjected to virus shedding on a daily basis by those individuals who have chosen to vaccinate? What about those of us vaccinated or not, who have gotten sick as a result of a vaccine induced virus outbreak (like whooping cough, measles, and meningitis). What about the billions of dollars we sink into healthcare every year to cover the rising costs associated with the surge of childhood diseases, all of which are listed as side-effects on the vaccine inserts and have increased as the number of vaccines on the child immunization schedule have increased? What about the vaccine-injured children? Should we not be worried about protecting our children from the serious and sometimes debilitating vaccine-induced conditions? Are my religious freedoms not protected when it comes to vaccinations? Is my educated opinion that vaccines are harmful to the human body of less value than yours? What about the millions of Americans and medical professionals who think the same?

You state that vaccines are safe and effective but as a member of the scientific and healthcare community I’m not sure how you came to that conclusion. You see, vaccines are not research effective because they are not subjected to double-blind placebo controlled studies using a saline solution that is the standard for evidence-based medicine. Vaccinations are tested against other vaccinations, adjuvants, and complex vaccinations – this not only yields inaccurate results but altered and inaccurate safety data. How can you know if something is truly safe if it is not tested against a placebo?

“Vaccines are safe and effective. The significant reduction in illness and death from vaccine-preventable diseases is testimony to how well they work.”

“Measles, mumps, and rubella are three common childhood diseases, caused by measles virus, mumps virus (paramyxoviruses), and rubella virus (togavirus), respectively, that may be associated with serious complications and/or death. For example, pneumonia and encephalitis are caused by measles. Mumps is associated with aseptic meningitis, deafness and orchitis; and rubella during pregnancy may cause congenital rubella syndrome in the infants of infected mothers.”

Assuming for a moment that the MMR vaccine actually works, the above sounds pretty good…until you get to the bottom of the insert where you see that the vaccine is associated with the same side-effects of the disease it’s designed to prevent:

I’m sorry, I’m vaccinating against a rash that has a less chance of causing death than you falling out your bedroom window, being struck by lightening, and drowning in a puddle, so that I can increase my child’s chance of getting one of the side-effects listed above? No thanks. I don’t gamble (especially with those odds). That’s not safe or effective.

And of course, all of these inserts say the same thing: “This list includes serious events or events which have causal connection to components of this or other vaccines or drugs. Because these events are reported voluntarily, from a population of uncertain size, it is not possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to the vaccine.”

Does this seem like evidence-based medicine to you? Do you think this pharmaceutical company can’t establish a causal relationship between vaccinations and side-effects because of the poor manner in which they conduct their studies (and because they do not want to insinuate fault)? As a parent, don’t you think the wisest thing to do is to make sure these substances are held to the highest testing and safety standards before they’re injected into children? Are you really making me choose between a measles rash and brain encephalitis?

And I love how the package insert insinuates that the vaccine some how played a role in eradicating measles, mumps, and rubella:

“For measles, 894,134 cases reported in 1941 compared to 288 cases reported in 1995 resulted in a 99.97% decrease in reported cases; for mumps, 152,209 cases reported in 1968 compared to 840 cases reported in 1995 resulted in a 99.45% decrease in reported cases; and for rubella, 57,686 cases reported in 1969 compared to 200 cases reported in 1995 resulted in a 99.65% decrease.”

I find this correlation (that the vaccine eradicated or reduced these illnesses) interesting especially because the first measles vaccine wasn’t even put on the market until 1963. So we have twenty years unaccounted for here and the actual data shows a stark decline in mortality of measles before the vaccine was introduced. Isn’t that convenient? The same is true for polio, pertussis, diphtheria, and the rest. (Here’s a good read on that).

Vaccines did not eradicate these diseases. Quarantine programs, sanitation, clean living conditions, and clean water did. If you look at how these viruses are transmitted (dirty water, poop, unpasteurized milk from infected cows, etc.) and the time frame during which these diseases actually decreased you’ll see this occurred during a time in both Britain and United States History where our society became more industrialized as a whole and access to clean water, clean food, and public health services drastically improved. But we’ll just pretend that the high prevalence of these diseases in other parts of the world like Africa and India have nothing to do with the fact that there are millions of people living in poverty without access to clean living conditions or water.

But wait, what about whooping cough?
Not only was the mortality rate practically nonexistent before the introduction of the pertussis vaccine, the actual prevalence of pertussis was relatively unaffected by the vaccine until 2003-2004 when the outbreaks doubled. Of course this was attributed to “better diagnostic and reporting methods” which is code for “the new vaccine we created to replace the old vaccine has failed miserably and has made the vaccinated asymptomatic carriers that can infect anyone in the population…Oops.” I know, the unvaccinated are easy scapegoats but according to the science, we’re not the carriers causing the outbreaks here.

The Era of Chronic Disease

I have to agree with your article, we are fortunate to live in an era where we rarely see polio, small pox, diptheria, and other major illnesses. I certainly am not a fan of paralytic polio or any sickness for that matter – what parent is? But to say that these diseases are “vaccine-preventable” or that the vaccine eradicated these illnesses is a stretch at best (you can look at other countries who have comparable vaccination rates and see the failures here).

Do you really think that the increase in chronic disease in this country has nothing to do with the massive amount of vaccines being shoved at the American people? If you can’t see the correlation…please read the vaccine inserts here.

No, what I see around me is a new generation of disease. We have a 1 in 50 autism rate – the highest in history and of any other country. We have diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, Crohn’s disease, eczema, learning disabilities, neurological disorders, seizure disorders, birth defects, psoriasis, food allergies, thyroid conditions, and outbreaks of vaccine-strain disease like pertussis, measles, shingles, and mumps. Does this seem like a win to you?

Ask any parent with an autistic child if they’d rather choose a simple fever and rash that lasts for 3-5 days that gives their child life-time immunity or the life-long condition of autism (which is listed as an adverse reaction on page 11 of the Tripedia DTaP insert which is now discontinued, but not before millions of children were injected). I think WE as PARENTS owe it to our children to make sure these vaccines, with absolute certainty, do not cause these diseases before we inject anything and everything into our children on a whim. Oh, but how can we do that when vaccines are not research effective? Read the entire article here.

*2/4/15 Editors note: Vaccination is an extremely polarized (and emotionally charged) topic for many. However, this is not a forum for attack and name calling. Before posting a comment, please consider whether it is constructive and void of aggression. Thank you.

114 comments:

To the pro-vaxxers who want to eliminate informed consent and force vaccination I say.....Tyranny is really not "good" for anyone. Your desire is about power and control. The "greater good" is an evil lie that begins with false concern and ends with oppression. It's such a dangerous game you play.

Thank you Carolanne for a well written article. As a nurse indoctrinated into Westernized medicine I have had blinders on about vaccinations until a few years ago. I wish I would have never vaccinated my children. My son has a rare disease skin disease that I think was caused by vaccinations. I will be submitting an exemption for the meningitis vaccine.

If your child is already vaccinated, then how would a non-vaccinated child pose a problem to your child? Kids of my generation got measles, got chicken pocks, got childhood diseases that built in a natural immunity. I do not remember one kid dying when I was a kid and that was when most families had 3 or 4 children. Let parents decide on their own family health issues. I have never trusted pharmaceutical companies since thalidomide. In England, growing up, neighborhoods were strewn with children with no arms, distorted limbs or stumps growing out of shoulders because their mothers took the "safe and reliable cure for morning sickness."

People don't connect the omniscient godlike portrayal of doctors on television with medicine for profit. It's time they should.

The bodily processes of a human being or any creature are extremely precise. The epitome of flippancy and arrogance is to think bodily processes can manipulated with vaccines 49 times before a child is 6 years old without consequence to the child’s well being. Maybe you can explain that arrogance along with what happens to the vaccine residue.

Americans, us Baby Boomers, did very well without this vaccine madness. I see the TV ads for a plethora of wonder drugs and their horrific accompanying side effects and I understand vaccines are nothing more than drugs called vaccines. Speaking of horrors did you read about the idiots who wanted to have anthrax vaccine study done on babies? Did you read about the soldiers who were killed/maimed by anthrax vaccine? Or the young women who were killed/maimed by Gardasil?

Of course vaccines don't cause autism. Vaccines cause Encephalitis and Encephalitis can cause Autism. After 40 years of lying by omission there is still no explanation of what is plaguing children with autism. That in itself is a crime against humanity, specifically against tiny children.

An open mind would observe that he or she is in the midst of medical community mindset catastrophe. Think about it. The medical community can't figure out the cause of all of these threatening conditions yet it demands we not question what's behind the curtain.

The medical community is often addressing conditions, breakdowns of body processes, caused by previous medical treatment be it vaccines or drugs.

Take the pain killing aspirin type drugs. If you read the insert they can cause all kinds of conditions. The conditions are treated with more "drugs" which in turn may cause more exotic conditions.

Do you get it? The processes of the human body are so complex, so interdependent, that entered drugs and vaccines are time bombs.

Please note the Merck Home Health Handbook says"Encephalitis is inflammation of the brain that occurs when a virus directly infects the brain or when a virus, vaccine, or something else triggers inflammation. The spinal cord may also be involved, resulting in a disorder called encephalomyelitis."

That's vaccines, not one particular vaccine.

You can't safely give infants 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 of today's super powered toxic adjuvant laced vaccines in one visit. It's lunacy. How many adults would do it? Thank goodness the INTERNET has opened the eyes of so many. Without it we'd still believe doctors were gods after we were brainwashed with Ben Casey, Marcus Welby, and George Clooney.

The consitution of the USA does not give parents, or anyone, the right to avoid vaccines if they are required for school or work. If the state does not allow exemptions, the constitution does not give you the right to over-rule state law. So, you got that wrong. Also, if oyu look up why mortality rates were going down around the time vaccines were introduced I think you will see it had to do with modern medicines. Antibiotics, specifically. People were still suffering. So, please look up the CDC's MMWR morbidity rates. You can download the entire file from the last 100 years of morbidity rates and compare how many people were still suffering from disease until vaccines were introduced.

Also, please look into these two links to understand more about why there is no connection between vaccines and autism. If there were, there would be no unvaxxed autists. But, there are unvaxxed autists. So, none of you arguments hold up.

http://www.autismsciencefoundation.org/

http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/

And yes the upswing in chronic disease has nothing to do with vaccines. It has to do with better diagnostics.

Also, I am afraid you are not reading the inserts correctly. I urge you to take them to your medical doctor and have them explained. Ask your doctor about risk analysis and how you are taking a far greater risk not vaxxing than I am by vaxing.

Thanks Mike for the great information you have provided here. I think it is absolutely outrageous and irresponsible that children are subjected to vaccines at all, let alone the sheer number of injections they receive by the time they reach high school. Healthy, organic food, clean water and a non-toxic environment are the best ways to keep our kids disease-free, not vaccines.

I disagree Kathy. Conventional doctors are the worst people to consult about vaccines, especially since many are on the 'payroll' (kick-backs and perks) of pharmaceutical companies. I don't believe you will receive an unbiased opinion from your average physician, most have been brainwashed through schooling and pharmaceutical reps.

And the problem we have with the world today is people like the writer of this article who clearly has donut syndrome, not thinking about the need for herd immunity in order for vaccinations to work for his neighbours, his children, his elderly parents, his significant others, and anyone else who comes in contact with him and his attitude toward vaccines. IF someone does get the disease after vaccination, he/she will have a reduced reaction to it because people around him/her, have also been vaccinated and their own immune system has built up resistance. It is a CUMMULITIVE solution, not a "cure." Therefore it needs a "cummulitive" or community response to be effective. If you don't understand this while writing responses you are just confirming your ignorance on the topic. This isn't all about YOU, it is about the community, and is the equivalent of paying taxes due, etc., that are other social responsibilities in life. I see a lot of people making comments on here that show a great deal of ignorance on the topic of vaccinations, how they work, and the importance of every individual in the community to be involved in order to prevent your nearest and dearest from being at risk. And saying you haven't been hit by a truck yet, doesn't mean one isn't going to hit you tomorrow, for heaven's sake. I always wonder how many other laws people flaut when I see the type of answers that are on this page. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfdZTZQvuCo

Who would trust the CDC these days? Got whistleblowers?Why don't you just stick to your koolaid and leave us thinking, reasoning, questioning people alone and stop spewing your unsubstantiated beliefs.

NY has bills to try to have mandatory meningitis and HPV vaccines. Please write to your assembly person and let them know that you OPPOSE mandatory vaccines. We already have 56 dead from meningitis vaccine and 110 dead from HPV vaccine in NY per VAERS. Let's not have any more deaths by these dangerous drugs. Take action.

Let me guess, you both think that Autism is genetic. And that's fine, you can think that. But did you know that your genetic makeup is unique in that it is altered automatically by nature due to things that your ancestors (such as your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents) were exposed to - environmental factors, medicines, vaccines, and even the foods they ate. That's called evolution. Also, did you know that 98% of children with Autism have a genetic disorder called MTHFR? MTHFR makes it difficult for a child's body to remove toxins, which in turn causes damage to their bodies, and can cause...Autism. Perhaps instead of sitting on your high horse and taking everything your doctor shoves down your throat for the gospel, you should do your own research because it's not so cut and dry.

Love reading articles like this. No shaming for the other side, just good info. Been emotionally exhausting reading the hate from the other side, glad we have people like this writing articles like this.

Grab your brain that fell in the toilet!Vaccines cause everything from Autism to childhood cancers to SIDS to paralysis to diseases spreading and mutating!The mortality rate is its highest it has ever been due to vaccines, who are you kidding.Vaccines are the number ine cause of all childrens deaths!!Vaccines never ever eradicated anything except for lives!!!

If anyone questions if your religion really forbids vaccination, just explain that your religion forbids gambling, and vaccinating your child would be gambling with their life, since there is no way to know in advance if they will become a vaccine-injury victim.

Bullshit.Selfish parents who have caused 6000 plus deaths since 2007 by not vaccinating and will cause new epidemics.Im deaf in one ear and am going to have a heart value replace after from getting measles at 15..and I have lung damage from whooping cough.Just wait.Idiots

This is the world we live in...at least in the US......tin foil hats and just enough knowledge to be dangerous...connecting dots that are scientifically not accurate and denying reality to create your own egotistical world. Leave the real science to scientist that understand how to properly interpret research and data. I cant believe the vast ignorance that I read from the anti vax-cult. It reminds me of https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8Q3ywwAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fscreen.yahoo.com%2Fmedieval-barber-000000006.html&ei=H5vHVNqSDIinNrKfgqAN&usg=AFQjCNEpMFjJh8P0cPb5EP97HG7-OKItaw&sig2=pcoj2evTqB-GUMZhA8vf8Q&bvm=bv.84349003,d.eXY

Herd immunity is a myth based on natural immunity, not vaccinated. It is known that vaccination based immunity decreases over time. How many adults are still immune to the diseases they were vaccinated with as a child? Probably less than 30%. Kind of blows the whole herd Immunity idea out of the water, don't you think? By this reasoning, with as low of immunity is walking around, these diseases should be rampant, shouldn't they?

Okay, obviously you were going for shock and awe with some of those statements. Anyway, I am on the fence about vaxing. I see the importance and then I can see the draw backs. Unlike most individuals on this board I am actually educated in Autism. So let me share. The diagnoses of Autism and Aspergers (Now Mild Autism) began early in the 1900's, and yes that's like before there were vaccines. Now it was call something different at that time. I believe it was childhood schizophrenia and before that individuals were stated to behave oddly and were lumped together. A lot of people want to state the rate of Autism is rising. But with new definitions and a broader knowledge of the spectrum, of course rates would increase because now more kiddo's and adults are fitting into the spectrum. With that said, make an informed decision. I do believe everyone should be able to make their own choice on their child's well being. But I chose to vaccinate my child because a friend of ours had a child a few months after our son and the child had several medical issues making it's immune system volatile and weak. So sometimes it isn't about your kid is all I am saying. I get protecting your kids. So do what you want, but please understand if you child carry's measles to Disney World and there are children there maybe living their "make a wish". Their health is in your hands as well. God bless

Isn't it odd how we've been normalised to the idea of 'exemption'. The idea that, by default, we receive this product unless we can present sufficient grounds for declining it... rather than a product we avail ourselves of, at our discretion. Exercise is good for people... how would we react if we had to take a gym membership unless we filled out a form explaining why we weren't able to?I live in New Zealand, and while there is a reasonable amount of pressure to vaccinate, if you don't show up for vaccination there is no compulsion. (when I say there is no compulsion, the message is "you are free to choose not to vaccinate your kids but if you don't you can't send them to school")

"My son has a rare disease skin disease that I think was caused by vaccinations." That is not how science works. Leading up to your son's disease, it sounds like he got vaccinated, but maybe he also probably played with a dog, rolled around in a field full of ticks, swam in a public pool, stuck his fingers in poop and then smeared them all over his face, and then hugged a stranger. I mean there are literally thousands of ways your kid could have gotten a rare disease, and you have demonstrated no statistical causality. Assuming it's the vaccine is just illogical fear.

The differance in the 1900's is that the children were BORN with dosorders not develope them after being perfectly normal and all of a sudden regression sets in at about a year to 2years old. Regarding your friends child, if they were like you, the chances are that poor child was injected with the HepB shot at birth that caused its problems from the beginning .Please stop with the parroting nonsense sacrifice one child for another. If a child has a comprised immune system, why would you take them to a place wuth thousands of people that they could catch anything.Give me a break!

That is a great reply which falls mostly on deaf ears of the true believers. Vaccines are criminal and are as bad for the health of a human body in the same measure of the vaccine maker who wants to keep you believing their mantra, "safe and effective". The pro-vaccine side doesn't even know what product inserts are and they have the gall to go around calling their imagined adversaries 'unscientific'. Actions have re-actions, so beware vaccine zealots, your side can't take much light being shown...people will start to notice the common sense problems, such as the fear vaccine zealots have of the unvaccinated. You would think they would be happy in the knowledge that their kids are protected from disease. They, the vaccine zealot parents, wouldn't be protected because no adults get booster shots, unless you are in the military (sorry to you all). These parents don't realize they are just as "dangerous" as those dreadful healthy and thriving unvaccinated kids they fear because the extent of their knowledge of the subject is limited to "vaccines are safe and effective". All of you who preach that mantra and haven't had your boosters in the last few years are hypocrites. Don't forget that your child's teacher likely has not had recent boosters and is essentially un-vaccinated. Maybe we need mandatory annual booster shots for medical doctors, teachers, cafateria workers, janitors, nurses, admin people and anyone else who comes into contact with our 'protected' vaccinated children too? Maybe the government should start forcing adults, especially parents, to have mandatory annual vaccine updates to protect the children. Because of course MD's COMPLETELY understand the immune system and they have assured us that bypassing the human bodies primary line of defense, ie, cellular immunity and injecting infectious particles, carcinogens, preservatives, neurotoxins, mutagens, metals, foreign proteins / DNA, bioaccumulative poisons and a whole host of other biological contaminates into the body is a good thing, something we HAVE to do 60 to 70 doses of it into a infant to child's life. The fact that they say that and so many people accept that from our government and the AAP and AMA and all the pharma factories churning out drugs of every flavor, is astounding to me. Poisons do not un-become poisons when they are used in vaccines, they are still poisons. How anyone could understand that and still vaccinate is sad.

Okay, what biology degree do you have? Because you're wrong. The association between vaccines and autism was made up by a doctor whose medical license was later revoked.

Also, let's think about what you're saying here, which is this: I would rather my child die from a contagious disease than get autism, which is not fatal but has a social stigma? God, I hope you never have kids.

What's interesting is that a lot of it comes from well educated but very misguided people. But the funny thing is that very few of them were educated in the sciences.

It's true that there is some corruption in the pharmaceutical industry. But honestly, that's why you read results from college funded peer-reviewed journals. They don't have agendas. And the results are still the same.

By the way, have you seen the recent measles outbreak? Guess whose fault that was =P

Uh, only people with degrees can "officially" know stuff? Really? Get over the degree thing, it is blinding you and you are putting undeserved reverence and trust where you really need a healthy dose of skepticism and critical thinking. I have a degree, DC, and hang out with people with degrees (MD, DC, JD) and if you think means much, you need to wake up a bit, for your own good. Some are great human beings and some are willfully ignorant scoundrels who will do most anything if the price is right. You don't need a degree to be knowledgeable in a subject. You can read the same books your MD read. You can read better books than your MD read. Sad thing is most MD's advocating vaccines don't critically read on this subject because the "know" vaccines are "safe and effective". You don't need a degree to understand human physiology, immunology and nutrition and the history of those three, you just have to be curious. Trust your reasoning but be open to the possibility that you could be wrong and you'll do as fine as any person with a "degree".

People like this woman who deem their "research" into vaccines as good as or better than actual science make me plain sick. I urge you to remember that the majority of the adult population is vaccinated and that we turned out just fine. I'm good with freedom of choice and all that, until it comes to the safety of children, that you are through your ignorance putting at risk. Your own child as well as the lives of children around them. I was born in Africa and still live here today as an adult and here vaccinations are still mandatory, as they should be! In upper Africa people are dying every day because of a lack of access to vaccines, but if your (what you term as a natural immune system is quite erroneous) natural immune response is so great, take yourself and your unvaccinated children to Nigeria or Libya and see which of you make it out alive. Those side effects that you are so fond of throwing around are so well characterised only because they've been studied again and again and again to make sure doctors can minimise the risk of them occuring, and in most cases the effects are quite reversible because (I reiterate) they've been studied again and again and again. So to conclude, refusing to vaccinate your children (especially for philosophical reasons) should be a crime like beating or molesting your children because you as a parent are making choices detrimental to their health and then the government DOES have a right to step in.

Formaldehyde has many uses – you may be familiar with its use in biology to preserve tissue. Formaldehyde is used in vaccine preparation to kill viruses or inactivate the proteins used. And traces of it can be found in some vaccines.

Now, while drinking embalming fluid concentrations of formaldehyde is seriously bad for you, the amount present in vaccines never exceed 0.1 milligrams (mg) per dose, and are typically much less than that. To put this in perspective, every time you eat an apple, you are eating between one and six milligram of formaldehyde. Yes, there is formaldehyde in fruit – plants make it as part of their normal metabolism (pears are by far the worst).

Formaldehyde Ian Musgrave, Molecule visualized in RasMol

You also make formaldehyde as part of your normal metabolism. It’s an essential part of the synthesis of amino acids and some of the components of DNA. At any given time, you have something like 2.5 mg of formaldehyde in every litre of your blood. This formaldehyde is being continuously generated as the enzyme formaldehyde dehydrogenase rapidly breaks it down.

A typical two-month-old child has around 1.1 mg of formaldehyde in its body from normal metabolism, ten times more than the maximum possible dose she could get from vaccines. And less than what she would ingest from mashed apples.

Well, if people like you were in charge of vaccinations when I was an infant, I'd be dead. Thank you.Apparently people like me, are worth nothing, and you've opted to turn your back on those of us who were born with immune problems.

Says the one who probably learned all they know about this subject from so-called health blogs.

Lets try to remember one thing: Everyone involved in this issue is making money off of it. Including bloggers and people who write books about how 'great' not vaccinating your children is. In fact, that's why a lot of them get involved in the issue to begin with. Do they have credentials? Have they even taken classes on what they're talking about? Hell no. But since when has that ever gotten in their way?

The logic behind finding sources (no, just reading does not make you well informed *coughBLOGAUTHORcough*) is basically the same here as it us for self help books:

Does it promise too much? Does the author have good credentials? Is there a theoretical or research base for what they are saying (as in, is it PEER REVIEWED -- and if you don't know what this means you have already failed so look it up)? Does your source focus on a particular problem?

Probably not. All reasons why this blog is not, like so many others, an actual source.

This is a biased source. Actually it doesn't even count as a source. Find something peer reviewed. Or rather, try. Because you won't find anything that is actually researched based that says vaccines are anything but good.

Sorry, that isn't a good source. It's full of opinions. Come back to me when you have actual research showing that vaccines have any negative effects.

This is like a 'health fad'. Here's the thing. And it started out as something good and quickly became disgusting.

Over the past few years health and green living have become more and more popular. And this is amazing, because these are serious issues. But as these issues became more and more important to us other people have appeared to take advantage of the situation. In this case, it was a doctor by the name of Andrew Wakefield who started the vaccine panic. He faked his results.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/

But in spite of the fact that his study was redacted and his medical license taken away a panic was created -- and of course people of a certain type latched onto that. People with no credentials and no background in biology or medicine started to publish things -- and believe me, a background is necessary to understand some of the things scientists come out with. It's a problem we have, where were're continually trying to figure out how to actually communicate with the public. When you live in a world where there is a different word for everything and you have to understand what things like LAC-1 and transpiration mean (among a million other terms) it quickly becomes impossible for anyone without the vocabulary to understand what you're saying.

And it was pretty clear that most of the people writing had no idea what they were talking about. The things they said were vague and not even cited. But unfortunately they tied them in with the health and green living movements. Which led to antivax. It's basically a fad, but unlike most it's a dangerous one.

Like, I don't care if someone wants to go gluten free. It may be a fad too and utterly unsupported (for anyone who does not actually have a gluten problem -- I mean, really. Just ask yourself why we've been fine eating bread for thousands of years and suddenly it's killing us. You barely need to read research studies for that one.) But vaccines are different.

A vaccine does not eliminate the disease. Basically a vaccine introduces a weakened or dead form of a virus into your system. And then your body does it's natural thing ALL ON ITS OWN where it learns to recognize that virus. Then you're less likely to get sick with it because your immune system knows what it is.

This is why anti-vax is a problem: Viruses can evolve. When you let yourself a virus you give it that chance. Congratulations. You've just made it more likely that the vaccine everyone else has gotten won't work because our bodies learned to recognize something else. You're not just risking yourself or your kids. You're risking everyone.

But don't take my word for it. Search for articles yourself on google scholar -- no, NOT just a regular google search. NOT blogs. Those are NOT good sources. Actually, don't read books either. The authors of those too often try to integrate their opinion into the text. This is why peer reviewed articles are important. The authors try not to show their opinions. They are examined by many other people in the field before being published. READ THEM.

About my background: I'm a biologist, but although I am trained in human biology I'm actually an ecologist who spends most of her time in conversation. I have no connection to the medical field. I'm unbiased, but I can read the data people come out with on vaccines and cell biology. Anti-vax is bullshit.

Please note that each link includes multiple peer reviewed research on the dangers of vaccination.

Also, please tone down your responses here. I know that vaccination is an extremely polarized (and emotionally charged) topic for many, but we need to reign this in a bit. Bullying and name calling aren't the foundation for a logical and balanced discussion. Thank you.

Please tone down your responses here. I know that vaccination is an extremely polarized (and emotionally charged) topic for many, but we need to reign this in a bit. Bullying and name calling aren't the foundation for a logical and balanced discussion. Thank you.

You're welcome to your opinion, but I don't think you looked at the site thoroughly. In case you missed it, here's the link to mainstream media resources that you might find more credible: http://avn.org.au/website-links/mainstream-medical-links/

And another site with links to peer-reviewed studies demonstrating the damaging effects of vaccines: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/page/vaccine-research

To be honest, I've found through experience that whatever side of the argument you find yourself to be, you can always find proof to support your belief. We all need to make our own decisions and choices, which I respect. And I will always consider both sides. However, I will not be drawn into further debate on this issue because of time constraints.

There is peer reviewed and there is peer reviewed. Not all journals are created equally. For example, the Institute for Creationist Research. They would say that the results they get are scientific and peer reviewed. However, it's pretty clear that they're not. They have an agenda and it's extremely biased.

http://www.icr.org/

It is the same with the articles you mention. They are not credible. Did you even look at the sample sizes they used? Also, with secondary sources like the ones you posted they often take one line out of a perfectly decent paper and blow it out of proportion. The media does this all the time. Try actually reading the papers behind the articles you read. And also try examining their methodologies.

You should know: Just because you read something online doesn't make it true.

And you're wrong about finding 'proof'. Science doesn't say it proves anything, for one, so that shows some ignorance on your part. What it does do is indicate relationships between different variables. Furthermore, those relationships are numerical and not a judgement call. So no, you cannot say that the evidence could go either way. What you do have is people who read these papers and, as you have, willfully or not, misunderstand. They then go on to further misrepresent those articles.

The third world stats comment.Yeah they need vaccines not better living conditions or clean water or safe food .Vaccinations are forced in Africa .How many are dying there now from vaccines. The voice of reason..no you're an ignorant danger to society.Sick and tired of poepl like you spewing BS science facts that have been skewed for profit for years.Again..if the science is so sound and vaccines have such a minimal adverse reaction..then why the need for protection from lawsuits?

And there it is..The Wakefield comment!Well...that explains your rants.Posting no credible sources, all Pharma funded posts and to boot, you have a biology degree and are completely ignorant and clueless.That explains everything now.

Sure, you're currently my favorite Rachel because of the sheer number of aggressive comments over the last few days and use of profanity. If an anti-vaxer were displaying the same, I would send the same request. I also posted the warning at the end of the article yesterday to avoid issues from either side in the future.

greenmedinfo isn't a source of anything other than alex jones nut jobbery, the other link goes to information that supports vaccinations, so not sure if you are having trouble with reading comprehension or what

The web has tens of thousands of peer reviewed research attesting to the benefits and efficacy of vaccines. A few dozen articles selected with the deliberation of confirmation bias hardly counters that.Your agenda here is blatantly antivaccine, don't try and pretend otherwise

GreenMed? Seriously? Let me guess: You get medical advice from Andy Wakefield, Bob Sears, and David Geir; you get your "cleanses" from Mercola & Adams; and you do you shopping according to Vani Hari & Vadana Shiva.

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